A system that won't protect unpaid laborers does not deserve them.
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Five days before Christmas, 2025.
The whole story — in one take, no edits — while walking a forest trail.
Why I built this archive: to correct an epistemic violation.
It is not designed to win attention.
It is designed to outlast denial.
In early 2025, I served as an unpaid volunteer at Honeyman State Park.
What began as a routine volunteer assignment quickly escalated into two months of systematic psychological pressure, coercive tactics, and institutional retaliation, followed by dismissal and expulsion from all Oregon State Parks.
This archive is not a story about me.
It is a story about them — the choices they made when given evidence of abuse, when given the opportunity to stop, when given time to self-correct. And every mechanism of accountability — instead used to shield themselves.
THIS ARCHIVE CENTERS AN OPEN LETTER
TO THE DIRECTOR OF OREGON STATE PARKS — LISA SUMPTION
I entered the state parks system anticipating alignment —
to protect the commons,
to hold space with integrity,
to support the land,
and to give freely without ownership.
That was the offer.
What I found instead was systematic abuse by those entrusted to supervise me.
This archive documents every decision they made when given the opportunity to stop.
On August 25, 2025, I sent a comprehensive Open Letter to Director Lisa Sumption.
It acknowledged her accomplishments.
It documented systemic abuse with evidence.
It named the power imbalance plainly.
It called for institutional protections for volunteers.
It outlined a clear path forward.
She responded within twelve hours.
Her reply:
- Formally acknowledged receipt.
- Offered no specific commitments.
- Deferred responsibility to "appropriate channels."
- Chose institutional reputation over volunteer safety.
Earlier that week, I filed a Public Records Request.
I received an automated acknowledgment, then a phone call attempting to narrow its scope.
I declined and requested all further communication in writing.
Oregon Parks & Recreation Department responded 90 days later —
only after I issued a formal demand for compliance.
They claimed they had responded on August 29, 2025.
They provided a screenshot of an internal portal system as proof.
No email was sent to notify me.
No letter was mailed.
I was never told this portal system existed.
I had no access credentials.
For 90 days, they remained silent while I waited at the email and mailing address listed in my request.
When finally pressed, they provided a cost estimate in the tens of thousands of dollars.
I withdrew the request — their response had become the evidence.
The reality is this:
Humans did this to another human being.
Not policies. Not procedures. Humans.
Humans with names, with faces, with the capacity to choose differently.
- Kati Baker, Park Supervisor, orchestrated it.
- Ryan Warren, Park Manager, executed it.
- Logan Bliss, Volunteer Services Lead, weaponized trust to enable it.
- Allison Watson, Engagement Programs Manager, formalized the retaliation in writing.
- Lisa Sumption, Director, acknowledged it and chose to shield them.
- The agency violated public records law for 90+ days to avoid transparency about it.
Every person documented in this archive had the power to stop this.
Every person chose not to.
Every person who abused their position is free to do this again to someone else.
No investigations occurred.
No protections were implemented.
No one was held accountable.
Those choices are now permanent.
They don't fade with time.
They don't disappear because they refuse to act.
They don't get absolved by silence.
—
Samuel White
Former Oregon State Parks Volunteer
December 1, 2025
THIS IS THE MAP. THIS IS THE PATTERN. THIS IS THE MIRROR.
This archive is not for revenge.
It is for those who have been told they imagined it.
It is for those about to walk into something similar.
It is for the future, when denial no longer holds.
It does not ask for apology.
It does not ask for repair.
Oregon state government can no longer abuse a volunteer this way without documented precedent. When the Governor's office was directly notified and chose silence, this stopped being one agency's failure. It became pattern evidence for every volunteer program across Oregon's executive branch. Their institutional silence does not erase the pattern. It confirms it.